‘I’ll open the door for him, lady,’ she offered.
Laisre glanced towards the portly woman.
‘Do so then. Quickly!’
The hostel keeper, her face set sternly, moved to the door. Then she turned swiftly.
Abruptly Laisre stiffened. His face contorted. The dagger blade fell away from Esnad’s throat as his grip loosened. Sensing his slackening grasp, the young girl broke away and ran sobbing into the arms of her mother. The chieftain of Gleann Geis stood swayingfor a moment. It seemed as though he had suddenly acquired a red necklet. The dagger finally dropped from his nerveless fingers and he fell face forward on to the council chamber floor. Blood began to pump from his severed artery on to its boards.
Marga let out a series of long, shuddering sobs.
‘He was going to betray me,’ she whispered almost in disbelief.
‘I know, I know.’ Cruinn gazed at her in sympathy. She was still standing before the door, behind Laisre’s body. There was a large knife in her hand, still stained with the chieftain’s blood.
Ibor ran forward and bent down, feeling for Laisre’s pulse. There was no need. It was obvious that the chieftain was dead. He glanced up at Fidelma and shook his head. Then he slowly stood up and removed the knife from Cruinn’s limp hand.
Cruinn turned away and, taking Marga by the arm, led her to a seat.
Colla had his arm around Orla who was clutching at Esnad. The young girl was shivering with shock at what had happened.
Only Murgal seemed in total control and he was regarding Fidelma with restrained emotion.
‘Truly, there is much barbarism here. Was he also responsible for Dianach’s death …?’
‘In a roundabout way,’ Fidelma confirmed. ‘Brother Dianach knew that Laisre was in the plot with his master, Solin of Armagh. Of course, Dianach was also involved but he thought that Solin’s cause was just, not realising just how corrupt and corrupting it was. He was a mere servant of his master. In many ways he was a naive young man. Laisre went to Dianach after I was incarcerated. He knew I was innocent and was afraid that if I was discovered to be so, then suspicion would come his way. Orla could prove her innocence through Colla and eventually I would realise what I had seen. The fact that Orla and Laisre were twins would eventually lead me to him. Laisre felt that he had to ensure I was found guilty. So he instructed Dianach to purchase the cows from Nemon as a bribe for Artgal to maintain his story about me; to make certain that I was blamed.’
‘To escape from his guilt? But why did he kill Solin in the first place?’ Murgal was puzzled.
Fidelma shook her head quickly.
‘It was not Laisre who killed Brother Solin. You forget that Solin was his ally. Without Solin the plot would not work.’
Murgal was totally bewildered.
‘But I thought …?’
‘I was not lying when I told Laisre that I knew he had notkilled Brother Solin. Laisre only wanted to ensure that I was made the scapegoat because he knew who the real culprit was. The trouble was that Brother Dianach, once I was released, had brought the attention of the real killer on himself. The real killer mistakenly thought that Dianach and Artgal had somehow become a danger to them. The killer was waiting for Dianach and Artgal at Artgal’s farmstead after the farce of my trial. The killer had prepared a poisoned drink for both Artgal and Dianach, to stop them speaking further. But it was a slow-acting poison. It gave the killer time to send Artgal out of the valley on some pretext, perhaps to escape punishment. But the main purpose was to have Artgal disappear. The killer told him to leave Gleann Geis by the second route along the river path, through the caves, knowing that the poison would eventually act and that Artgal would never come out of the caves alive.
‘The killer was then left alone with Dianach, waiting for the poison to work. It was obvious, by the way, why Dianach had to be killed. But, as I say, the poison was slow working. The killer suddenly saw Rudgal, Eadulf and myself approaching the farmstead which Artgal had recently left. There was only one thing to do. Pretending to take Dianach to a hiding place, pretending that we intended him harm, the killer took the opportunity to cut his throat just as he was bending down to crawl into a shed.’
Murgal was following her argument keenly, nodding as she swiftly made her points.
‘I see no fault with this logic. All right. It brings us back to the identity of the killer. From what you have said — it can be only Marga.’
Marga was even beyond reacting. Her head was still bent with the shock of her rejection by Laisre. Fidelma surprised them all with a negative gesture.
‘You must have deduced by now that Marga was in the plot with Laisre to support Mael Dúin’s bid for power. That we can all agree. She was the emissary whom Laisre sent to meet the men of Ailech. Why was she involved? Because she was in love with Laisre. He had promised her marriage. Promised to share his forthcoming power under Mael Dúin with her. Promised to make her his coequal.’
She paused to let her words sink in before continuing.
‘As part of the plan Laisre was to send someone to meet Mael Dúin’s men and show them the best place at which they were to enact their terrible charade of the ritual slaughter. He could not go himself for obvious reasons. The person he sent would have to be someone of commanding position to deal with the men of Ailechand not a mere apothecary. So he had Marga dress in Orla’s clothes in order to give her an appearance of position and she was told how to act the part. She played that part well, even hunting down an escaped prisoner. Mind you, Marga had no love for Christians and so she was quite happy to do so and was not bothered about the fate of the hostages.
‘Now as much as she disliked Brother Solin, the last thing that Marga would do was to kill the ally of Laisre before the plot came to fruition. No, there was too much at stake for her, or, indeed, for Laisre, to kill Solin simply because he had insulted her.’
‘Who is this killer then?’ demanded Colla, somewhat petulantly. ‘For the sake of our shattered nerves, tell us and let us have done with this awful business.’
‘Will you tell them why you killed Brother Solin or shall I, Cruinn?’ asked Fidelma quietly.
The rotund woman who was sitting comforting Marga did not even stir. Her face was stony.
‘Tell them if you must,’ she finally said without emotion and then closed her mouth tightly.
Marga had given a sob of heartrending anguish as she clutched at the elder woman.
‘You? You killed Solin?’
‘How could I not do so, child?’ replied Cruinn calmly.
Marga swung round, eyes wide, looking at each of the company in turn before finally letting them alight on Fidelma.
‘I did not know,’ she whispered.
‘No. I did not think you did.’ Then she looked at Cruinn. ‘You killed Brother Dianach with much the same stroke of your knife as that with which you despatched Laisre. And you also poisoned Artgal.’
‘What nonsense is this?’ demanded Orla, her old poise somewhat recovered by now but unable to follow these new developments. ‘Why would this old woman kill anyone?’
Colla agreed. ‘That you must explain, Fidelma. Why would this old hostel-keeper commit these murders? It is madness.’
‘If madness it was, it was the madness of a possessive mother.’
Cruinn was implacable.
‘How long have you known?’ she asked Fidelma.
‘A little while now but I could not be sure what Orla’s part in it was. I was still convinced until last night that I had seen her leaving the stable. Once I knew that it had not been Orla, everything began to come together rapidly and Ibor, this morning, brought me the lastpiece of the puzzle when he reported that he had discovered Artgal’s body in the caves.’
‘Will you tell us why Cruinn did this?’ invited Murgal.
‘Cruinn is the mother of Marga.’
‘Most people in the valley know that,’ affirmed Murgal. ‘That is no secret.’
‘Assumption can create secrets,’ replied Fidelma. ‘I am a stranger here. I did not know. Had I known, perhaps some deaths might have been prevented. I had to reason this out for myself. I should have listened more carefully when Cruinn said that she went picking healing herbs with her daughter. Then she later mentioned that
